Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (April 27, 2011)
Local saddle maker to take work to Cowboy Arts Association By David Sykes University o f o n ^ hu«ene, OR 97403 Paper L,hrar> foundation. Tod F ru s e tta o f H eppner has been in the cattle business his whole life and has been m ak ing fine quality saddles since 1963. Last Thursday he talked to the Heppner C h am b er o f C om m erce about his leather work and his life as a cowboy. “ I h a v e w o rk e d with some very good saddle makers, and 1 take pride in my work,” he told members o f the chamber. “I am work ing on a saddle now for the Cowboy Arts Association at the Oklahoma City Con vention.” He says sad d les accepted by the foundation can bring premium prices on the market when sold. He is trying for member ship in the a sso c ia tio n , which currently has only 22 members. Some o f his other notable work includes a set of chaps he made for Bobby Mote o f Culver, OR who won four w orld titles in bareback riding. Frusetta said it made him feel “pretty good” to see Mote wearing his chaps while riding in the Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon National Finals Rodeo. Frusetta has also been involved with rodeo, as he was a rodeo clown for 20 years, and has been to the national finals himself Wars anti-tobacco educa as a saddle bronc rider. tion program to Heppner- area elementary schools. The Oregon Acad emy o f Family Physicians is the largest medical spe cialty society in O regon and represents more than By April Sykes 1,400 fam ily physicians, The Morrow Coun residents and medical stu ty Health District approved dents throughout the state. a proposed $9,943,705 bud The mission of the OAFP get for the district’s 2011-12 is to advocate for family fiscal year at their regular physicians and assist them meeting Monday night at in providing for the health the Lakeview Heights Se of their patients and com cure Residential Treatment munities. Facility in Heppner. Out o f that amount, only $1,131,502 is antici pated in property taxes, including the local option levy. MCHD Chief said, “We continue to be impressed with our growth Financial O fficer Nicole o f deposits. Even in this Mahoney said that the pro low rate environm ent we posed budget will see five see strong growth. We at percent rate increases for tribute this to the excellent all departments, except the customer service provided swing bed nursing facility. by our experienced banking She also said that M or sta ff and the confidence row County Assessor Greg our customers have in the Sweek projected three to safety and soundness o f six percent less in property taxes for the district. our bank.” Board Chair Larry “ The strength in M ills rem arked that the the farm economy contin budget appeared to be a ues to bode well for our conservative one. agricultural loan portfolio. T he b u d g e t in The lasting effects o f the cludes a $100,000 dona housing crisis are waning tion to the Columbia River and our non-perform ing C om m unity H ealth Ser assets are at a much more v ice s to w ard th e ir new m anageable level than a clinic facility in Boardman, year ago,” said EVP and C h ie f C redit O fficer, E. which was made on Mon day. MCHD CEO Michael George Kofifler. Blauer and MCHD Board -See BEO EARNINGS/ member Leann Rea attend PAGE FOUR ed the groundbreaking held A lo c a l s a d d le maker will be taking one his saddles before the Tradi tional Cowboy Arts Associ ation and hopes to become one o f only 23 m em bers to be good enough to have saddles accepted by the HEPPNER lines VOL. 130 NO. 16 10 Pages Wednesday, April 27, 2011 Local family physician assumes position on state academy board Lo cal p h y s i cian, Betsy A n d e rs o n , M D, has Jetsy been elected Anderson, to the Board MD o f Directors o f th e O r egon Academy o f Family Physicians. Anderson was e le c te d for a th ree-y ear term at the Academy’s an nual business meeting held at the Skamania Lodge on April 9. A n d e rso n , w ho has worked for the M or row County Health District since 2007, received her medical degree from OHSU in 1997 and completed her residency in family prac tice at OHSU in 2000. She worked at Samaritan Fam ily M edicine in Corvallis from 200 until she moved to Heppner in 2007. As an Affiliate As sistant Professor for OHSU, Dr. Anderson also teaches first through third year med ical students and has been active in presenting the Tar pleased that our efforts to control expenses and tackle r e m a in in g problem as sets are pay- ing o f f in the form o f good e a rn in g s,” said p re s id e n t a n d C E O , Jeff Bailv Jeff Bailey. Chief Financial Of ficer, Mark Lemmon said, “Return on Average Assets is 0.80% and Return on Average Equity is 12.60% com pared to 0.74% and 11.96%, respectively, year over year.” Lemmon went on to say, “ We are able to leverage a low cost of funds and decent core earnings into profits.” C h ie f O perations O fficer, G ary P ropheter i jt A mm Local saddle maker Tod Frusetta shows a sample of his tooling work to members of the Heppner Chamber of Commerce. He was the featured speaker, talking about his life as a cowboy and saddle maker. -Photo by David Sykes He said it tak es about two weeks to make a saddle. He puts a lot o f effort into the tooling, a sample o f which he showed chamber members. He said all his saddles are made to order and that the cost o f m aterials has gone up considerably in the past several years, with leather costing up to $250 for a side (it takes two sides to make a saddle) and trees going for up to $600, an item he can rem ember going for $26. He buys his trees out o f Alberta, Canada; there are only 10 to 12 tree makers left in the United States. All -See SADDLEMAKER/ PAGE FOUR Health district board approves nearly $10 million proposed budget BEO Bancorp reports first quarter earnings Heppner, OR BEO Bancorp and its subsidiary, Bank o f Eastern Oregon, an n o u n c ed first q u arter 2011 consolidated net in come o f $501,000, or $0.54 per share. That’s compared to $444,000, or $0.49 per share for first quarter 2010. Total assets were $249.7 million, up 4.7% year over year. Net loans o f $191.1 million were up 9.0% from the same period in 2010, w h ile d e p o s its w ere at $221.2 m illion, up 7.2% year over year. BEO B ancorp is the holding com pany for Bank o f Eastern Oregon, which operates 12 branches and two loan production of fices in nine eastern Oregon counties. “Our first quarter results come on the heels o f a strong 2010. We are mm Monday morning. Another $50,000 o f the 2011-12 budget is earm arked for the Boardman clinic opera tions. Proposed expen ditures are as follows: Pioneer Me m o ria l H o s p ita l, H ep- p n e r - $ 4 , 9 8 8 , 1 98; H om e H ealth and H os- pice-$598,370; Boardman Ambulance-$272,445; Irri- gon Ambulance-$ 122,021; Pioneer Memorial Clinic, H e p p n e r-$ 9 3 6 ,2 0 5 ; Ir- rig o n C lin ic -$ 3 2 9 ,9 6 9 ; Em ergency M edical Ser vices (Lexington and Ione)- $15,063; Boardman Clinic O perating/C apital Dona- tio n s-$ 5 0 ,0 0 0 ; R evenue Reductions and Bad Debt- $1,077,964; Capital Pur- chases-$664,587; Capital L ease P rincipal R educ t i o n ^ 15,000; Long and Short Term Debt Principal Reducation-$524,396; Total Expenditures-$9,694,217; N et In c re a s e in C ash - $249,488. P ro jected R e sources include: P io n e e r M e m o rial H ospital-$5,223,527; H om e H ealth and H os- pice-$464,824; Boardman Ambulance-$232,468; Irri- gon Ambulance-$ 171,224; Pioneer Memorial Clinic, Heppner-$927,233; Irrigon Clinic-$407,976; Other Rev e n u e ^ 14,464; Donations and Grants-$69,000; Inter est Income-$45,322; Capital Leases-$390,000; Operating Capital, Long & Short Term Loans-$328,687; Commu nity Service Fees-$78,528; Electronic Health Record Reimbursements-$358,950; Total R esources E xcept Taxes-$8,812,203; Prop erty Taxes (Including Lo cal Option Levy if appli- cable)-$ 1,131,502; Total Resources-$9,943,705. Also at the m eet ing, M ahoney presented th e M a rc h p r o f it/lo s s statement, which showed a $58,325 profit for the month of March. She said that the gross patient rev enue for March was more than $139,000 above the previous month. Total oper ating revenue was $66,835. Operating expenses were $623,770. In other business, the board: - l ear ned from Blauer that he has spoken to Oregon Health Sciences University concerning car diology outreach to Hep pner via OHSU’s clinic in The Dalles. Dr. Tim Hanlon, who previously had held -See HEALTH DISTRICT BUDGET/PAGE TEN Swashbuckling good time Umatilla National Forest to begin invasive plant treatments ® ® The Umatilla Na- used include clopyralid, the Invasive Plants Treat- flax and houndstongue. tional Forest will soon be p ic lo r a m , g ly p h o s a te , ment Project. Funding includes planned at dinner theatre gin an integrated approach m etsulfuron m ethyl and Invasive species appropriated dollars and Cara Arhoga.vt (L) and Diana Healv (R) prepare for Pirate Island Dinner Theatre to be held this weekend. The dinner theatre, which is presented by the Heppner High School and Community Drama Group, will take place April 29 and JO in the HHS cafeteria. Both shows start at A p.m. The evening w ill feature pre-show hors d'oeuvres, dinner and show, with a tropi cal dance party to follow. Adult tickets are $15 and children are $12. Those interested in attending can call 54I-A7A-H022 or visit Sweet Productions for tickets. Photo h\ David Sykes o f prevention, manual, me chanical, herbicide, bio logical control and cultural treatments to reduce the risk o f invasive species expand ing on the forest. This work will be implemented under the 2010 decision for the Invasive Species Treatment Project. Treatm ent on the forest is scheduled to begin in May and is expected to continue through October. “The majority of herbicide treatments will be spot ap plication to individual inva sive plants using backpack sprayers and ATVs,” said Joan Frazee, forest botanist. Some broadcast applica tion is also planned along a small subset o f roadsides. H erbicides to be I c h lo rsu lfu ro n . “ M anual and mechanical treatments are planned for a number o f small infestations, some o f which have been treated for over a decade and are subsequently much reduced in size,” noted Frazee. Her bicide treatm ents will be carried out following the project design features o f the Record o f Decision for have been shown to reduce biodiversity including wild life habitat, w ildlife and domestic livestock forage and streamside vegetation. Invasive plants targeted for treatm ent include yellow starthistle, leafy spurge, spotted and diffuse knap weed, rush skeleton weed, S co tch th is tle , su lp h u r cinquefoil, dalmation toad- grant money from Title II projects. Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and Blue M ountain Elk In itiativ e Challenge Cost Share proj ects. Treatment sites are located across the U m a tilla National Forest and -See UMATILLA NATIONAL FOREST/ PAGE FOUR CONQUER THOSE WEEDS ! 24-D, ROUND UP & MORE Sprayers & Back pack sprayers Morrow County Grain Growers Lexington 989-8221 * 1-800-452-73^6 For firm mulpmfni rttlt a«r w t t »It« «I m i r C g nft t
